In response to my request for foodie extracts, Susan Willis presented me with something that wasn’t quite what it seemed. I marvelled at the glorious pictures of food, but there wasn’t any recipe or cooking. Feast your eyes on the extract from The Girl in the Dark. Find out what is simmering in the kitchen.
Extract
When Kim carried coffee into the room they all busied themselves preparing for the shoot. Thankfully, her mind was occupied with preparing the carrots and green beans to look as appealing as possible, rather than staring at Alex. He looked even more attractive prowling around the room with the big camera in his hand. Editorial still shots of the vegetables were first taken on a plain black background. Kim arranged six of the Chantenay carrots with their green tops uppermost into an attractive pile all facing in the same direction. She looked at Alex, who smiled and asked her to slice one lengthways and balance it on top of the pile.
‘We need to make it look sweet and tender,’ he muttered. ‘I’m loving the bright orange colour on the black background, and I’m thinking of whizzing them around with water droplets.’
Kim agreed and began to pile the green beans with their trimmed ends uppermost in an attractive pile on a wood board. She smiled at Alex, as if to say she was on the same wavelength, in fact, one step ahead. Kim blanched the green beans to help to keep the green colour bright and they worked out a design scattering the cut ends on a white cloth. By the time Alex had finished cropping and working his magic on the computer, they looked amazing.
He stood beside Kim chatting while she trimmed the cauliflower for the overhead shot. ‘I’m going to try a different approach with this,’ he said. ‘We call them fantasy shots?’
Kim could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck and her knees trembled – she was having fantasies of her own, but they didn’t include cauliflowers!
About the Novel
The Girl in the Dark is the latest Grip Lit novel from Susan Willis. A thrilling romantic suspense story that will keep you turning pages long into the night.
When Kim goes to old friend, Sidney’s, photography studio to start a new food styling contract she meets his new assistant, Alex. Kim is catapulted from her mournful existence into an explosive romantic relationship with Alex. Sidney, however, is wary. He thinks, there’s something not quite right about Alex, and urges caution.
Will Kim look back and wish she’d listened…
Susan Willis is a published author of three novels, and five novellas’. She lives in the North East of England surrounded by family and friends. Following publication of a love story about a chef and her boyfriend, she wrote more foodie-based love stories and wove them into her first novel, ‘Yes Chef, No Chef’.
Now Susan has ventured into romantic suspense with her latest novel, The Girl In The Dark.
Set in her home town of Durham City, this storyline is not a who done it thriller, but, a psychological page-turner which she loved writing. We can only hope the heroine hasn’t put her trust in the wrong man?
Best of luck to Susan with this novel.
I had never really considered the role of a food stylist until I read this extract. When I take photographs of food for tweets and posts, I tend to photograph exactly what I have cooked. Food is all about the taste for me. However, recipe books are probably bursting with these creations.
Have you ever followed a recipe from a cookbook and realised your creation looks nothing like the photograph?